Performance Benchmarking

Performance Benchmarking

Packing an Intel Core i7 , 4GB RAM and ATI Mobility Radeon HD graphics, the dv3 is a unit that’s pretty strong in the CPU department, but suffers from having a low-mid range discrete graphics. We’ll find out how much of an impact on the gaming experience further down. For now, let’s take a look at what we’ll be comparing this notebook to.

Notebook Comparison Table

Specifications / Notebook

HP Pavilion dv3

MSI GX400

Sager NP8690

Apple MacBook Pro
(15-inch, new)

Processor

Intel Core i7-820QM
(1.73GHz, quad-core with 8MB L2 cache)

Intel Core 2 Duo processor P8600 (2.40GHz) with 3MB L2 cache

Intel Core i7-720QM
(1.60GHz, quad-core with 6MB L2 cache)

Intel Core i7-620M
(2.66GHz, dual-core, 4MB L2 cache)

Chipset

Intel HM55

Intel PM45

Intel PM55

Intel HM55

Memory

4GB DDR3

2 x 2GB DDR2

4GB DDR3

4GB DDR3

HDD

1 x 640GB SATA 5400RPM

1 x 320GB SATA 5400RPM

1 x 320GB SATA 7200 RPM

1 x 500GB SATA 5400 RPM

Video

ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5450

NVIDIA GeForce 9600M GT

ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5870

NVIDIA GeForce GT 330M + Intel HD Graphics

The HP Pavilion dv3 is pretty well matched here in the CPU department but bear in mind that the discrete graphics of the dv3 isn’t quite as good as the other notebooks on this list, so expect to see slightly lower performance results. We’ve thrown in a last generation 14-inch MSI GX400 which is using a mid-range NVIDIA GeForce 9600M GT that should give a good indication of just where the dv3’s discrete stands in the overall scheme of things.

Futuremark PCMark Vantage

Going by the results of the PCMark Vantage results, you’ll note a pretty decent performance from the Pavilion dv3, though not as good compared to the units with better discrete graphics. But that’s how the benchmark program works, so the lower score is kind of expected. We’ll see exactly how much of a difference the discrete graphic plays in the following test.

Futuremark 3DMark06

Since the Sager notebook used in our comparison is a gaming powerhouse, we’re leaving it out for this benchmark comparison. That just leaves us with the Apple MacBook Pro and the MSI GX400 and their more powerful discrete graphics, and the results do indicate that the HP Pavilion’s dv3’s discrete graphics is really more towards the low end range. That said, if you do want to play games, you should be able to do so with lowered settings.